Bishop hails sport in the art of diplomacy

Cricket legend Shane Warne and West Coast star Nic Naitanui have both helped Foreign Minister Julie Bishop out of some tricky situations on the world stage.

Ms Bishop launched an Australian sports diplomacy strategy in Canberra on Thursday alongside Sports Minister Sussan Ley and a bevy of top netballers, footy, cricket, rugby players and track athletes.

Sport was an essential part of the art of diplomacy, Ms Bishop said because it has the power to transcend politics, cultural differences, economic circumstances, religious outlooks and can bridge the deepest divide.

She gleefully recalled how gifting Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama with a signed football jersey of the ethnic Fijian ruckman "Nic Nat the diplomat" had been a masterstroke icebreaker.

Ms Bishop served as an election observer in Zimbabwe in 2002 during the height of political tension when war veterans had been invading and trashing farms.

In a remote area on the Mozambique border, she visited a farm and met with some of the thugs who were occupying the property and were sitting around a camp fire.

"I was introduced to the leader of the gang - toothless, bike chains around his neck, wearing animal skins, with machetes, guns and weapons," she said.